New Greenwich exhibition shows diversity in drawing, line by line

Christina Hennessy

Updated 6:05 pm, Thursday, December 5, 2013

Fairfield artist Rick Shaefer is among a quintet of artists featured in a new exhibition, Drawn: Exploring Contemporary Drawing, which runs through Jan. 13, 2013, at The Drawing Room Gallery in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich, Conn. Focused solely on drawing, it explores different ways artists put lines to paper. Above is Shaefer's "Van Breems Oak."
Photo: File Photo

Fairfield artist Rick Shaefer is among a quintet of artists...

Fairfield artist Rick Shaefer is among a quintet of artists featured in a new exhibition, Drawn: Exploring Contemporary Drawing, which runs through Jan. 13, 2013, at The Drawing Room Gallery in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich, Conn. Focused solely on drawing, it explores different ways artists put lines to paper. Above is a detail of Shaefer's "Crow's on Wire."
Photo: Contributed Photo

Fairfield artist Rick Shaefer is among a quintet of artists...

"Black Lion" are among the drawings by U.K. artist David Litchfield that are on display at the Drawing Room Gallery in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich, Conn., through mid-January.
Photo: Contributed Photo

"Black Lion" are among the drawings by U.K. artist David Litchfield...

"Comb" by Ali Osborn is among the works on display at the Drawing Room Gallery in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich, Conn.
Photo: Contributed Photo

There were many days when Rick Shaefer would look beyond his yard to catch a glimpse of the tall black oak tree rooted in a neighbor's field. It became a steady presence in his landscape, familiar and majestic, complete with a knot that resembled an eye.

And then one day, about two years ago, a storm took it down.

"Even though it had fallen, it still had a presence," said Shaefer, who has lived in Fairfield for about 30 years.

It continued to draw Shaefer's gaze, as he looked more deeply into the rich textures of its weathered bark. With its curves and symbolic "eye," it was easy for Shaefer to imagine a large beast, such as a beached whale, in the final moments of its long life.

The end result became the five panels that together make up "Van Breems Oak," a work of charcoal on vellum that is one of several pieces that Shaefer has on display at the Drawing Room Gallery in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich. They are part of the show, "Drawn: Exploring Contemporary Drawing," which will feature the work of five artists. Focused solely on drawing, it explores different ways artists put lines to paper.

The hope behind the show, which marks the gallery's one-year anniversary, was to present a group of artists who had their own unique visual language, yet shared a common thread -- the drawn line, said curator Cameron Schmitz.

"My intention for the show was to give the viewer different avenues of investigation and expression when it came to drawing and to show how each artist approached drawing," said Schmitz, who grew up in Greenwich, but is based in Massachusetts.

For instance, Shaefer's marks create intricately wrought realistic images of the natural world, while the thousands of marks by Edward Kingsbury, of Keene, N.H., create free-flowing abstract forms. Brooklyn, N.Y.'s, Ali Osborn's depicts everyday objects with clean lines and bright colors, similar to the vivid hues of England-based artist David Litchfield. But you likely will not find most of his subjects in the real world, residing instead in the world of fantasy. Meanwhile, Eliza Stamps, of Brooklyn, starts with a dot on the page, unaware of where her hand will take her or what she will have created when the final mark is drawn.

"There is an accessibility that comes with drawing that is unlike any medium," said Schmitz, who is an artist herself. "You can see the artist's hands at work; there is a certain clarity in the work."

For the past two years, Shaefer has been working to achieve such clarity and develop his own distinct style when it comes to drawing, a medium he picked up only two years ago.

"It took a few months to get the style down, where I was comfortable with it," he said. "I had to find my own gestural vocabulary."

One won't find many smudges in Shaefer's work, which has caused some to mistake it for photography.

An editorial and fashion photographer by trade, he returned to his fine arts roots in the 1990s and has increasingly invested time and energy to rekindle his art career. In the beginning, he said he focused on painting and landscapes, but more recently has immersed himself in his drawings, which are often to scale, life-size works of objects in the natural world. He has a studio at the Nest Arts Factory in Bridgeport.

Most recently, he has been studying the etchings of Rembrandt van Rijn and Albrecht Durer, which he believes have had an impact on him.

As to the allure of drawing as a medium, Shaefer said it is hard not to be impressed by the vast landscape that it covers. There are myriad ways to draw and myriad materials for which to reach, he said. Yet, it remains a basic and visceral art, in that every stroke can be seen and every choice is readily apparent.

"In a world where so much is manipulated and manufactured, there is a discipline and honesty to it," he said.

Shaefer's work can be seen through Jan. 13 at the Drawing Room Gallery, but beginning on March 21, more of his work will be on display at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center during a two-month exhibition, "Black, White, Color Light: the Art of Rick Shaefer."